The Crawling Horrors of Mars: Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis”

The Crawling Horrors of Mars: Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis”

Xiccarph-smallI have a confession to make. I’ve read almost nothing by Clark Ashton Smith.

I know. I suck. CAS was one of the most important fantasy writers of the pulp era. Alongside H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, he established Weird Tales as the most important and influential fantasy magazine of the early 20th Century.

It’s not like I haven’t had plenty of folks on the BG staff trying to steer me right. Ryan Harvey’s epic four-part examination of The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith, starting with The Averoigne Chronicles way back in 2007, was a terrific bit of scholarship, and I was proud to publish it. More recently, John R. Fultz offered a detailed study of Smith’s poem “The Hashish Eater,” and Matthew David Surridge joined the discussion with his 2012 article “A Few Words on Clark Ashton Smith.” Just a few examples.

I blame Isaac Asimov for my early ignorance. Asimov strongly disliked Smith’s ornate style, famously relating the tale of the first CAS story he tried to read, in which he encountered the word “veritas,” which Smith used instead of “truth.” Yes, Asimov noted, veritas does mean truth, but he couldn’t fathom why anyone would use it instead of simply using “truth.” He put the story down and never tried Smith again.

Asimov introduced me to most of my early pulp heroes, in books like Before the Golden Age, The Hugo Winners, and The Early Asimov. His prejudice must have stuck with me, since I read almost nothing by Clark Ashton Smith for my first few decades as an SF reader.

Fortunately, this genre gives you lots of chances. Back in September I purchased a marvelous collection of 28 vintage paperbacks. One of the prizes in the lot was Xiccarph, part of Lin Carter’s highly collectible Ballantine Adult Fantasy library. Before putting it away I decided to dip into it. Here’s what I found on page two of Carter’s intro:

Since Weird Tales quite logically had a right to prefer tales that were weird, Smith conformed. In doing so he invented a minuscule sub-genre all his own.

To see precisely what I mean, turn to the story called “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis,” which is included in this book.

The tale, you will see, is set on the planet Aihai, or Mars, and it takes place in the near future. These facts alone qualify it as belonging quite firmly to the province of science fiction. But now read the tale and savor the prose style: this rich, bejeweled, exotic kind of writing is the sort we most often think of as being natural to the heroic fantasy tale of magic kingdoms and fabulous eras of the mysterious past. Finally, read the story straight through and notice the actual plot. As you will see, it is precisely the sort of thing we call weird or horror fiction.

In composing a horror story set in the future or another world and told in the luxuriant, “gorgeous” prose traditional to heroic fantasy, Smith did something quite new and different and exciting, something all his own.

Weird Tales, May 1932, containing "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis"
Weird Tales, May 1932, containing “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis”

Well, after a promising build-up like that, it was impossible not to put my next New Treasures update on hold for one more day, and settle back in my big green chair to read “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis.” And that’s exactly what I did.

The story was everything that Carter promised, and more. It’s a terrifically effective and surprisingly gruesome tale set in an archaeological dig on Mars, and one of the most powerful pieces of SF horror I’ve ever read. It stands up remarkably well even today. This one story has turned me into a stone cold Clark Ashton Smith fan.

It originally appeared in the May 1932 issue of Weird Tales, alongside Robert E. Howard’s “The Horror From the Mound,” Hugh B. Cave’s “The Brotherhood of Blood,” and “The Terror Planet” by Edmond Hamilton.

I’m going to summarize the story here.  I won’t ruin the ending, but there will be spoilers. Come on — this is an 82-year-old pulp story we’re talking about. Based just on how many people post constantly about Clark Ashton Smith on my blog, I’m probably the last person left in North America who hadn’t read it.

(If you want to read the story first, it is currently in the public domain and you can find the complete text on Wikilivres here.)

The tale begins thusly:

If the doctors are correct in their prognostication, I have only a few Martian hours of life remaining to me. In those hours I shall endeavor to relate, as a warning to others who might follow in our footsteps, the singular and frightful happenings that terminated our researches among the ruins of Yoh-Vombis.

Now that’s what I’m talking about. We’re not even five paragraphs in, and the narrator is dead already. They don’t write ’em like this anymore.

What’s all the fuss about? You know that answer to that: something’s not right in the dusty ruins of the ancient alien city:

There were eight of us, professional archaeologists with more or less terrene and interplanetary experience, who set forth with native guides from Ignarh, the commercial metropolis of Mars, to inspect that ancient, aeon-deserted city…

I had often heard of Yoh-Vombis, in a vague and legendary sort of manner, and never at first hand. Even the ubiquitous Octave had never seen it. Builded by an extinct people whose history has been lost in the latter, decadent eras of the planet, it remains a dim and fascinating riddle whose solution has never been approached… and which, I trust, may endure forevermore unsolved by man. Certainly I hope that no one will ever follow in our steps…

“Builded?” Man, my spell-checker didn’t like that. I don’t think that word exists on our planet.

But this is Clark Ashton Smith. And already I can tell that Lin Carter is right about one thing — from a prose standpoint, the man can get away with anything.

Xiccarph back cover
Xiccarph back cover

So our eight intrepid explorers and their guides set out on foot across the Martian sands. They reach the ruins before sunset and, after walking around and talking like space-suited explorers in a 1950s science fiction movie, expressing boundless awe and explaining things they already know to each other, they bed down for the night. The guides, of course, refuse to come near the strange city, so our eight explorers are on their own.

But just before he dozes off, our narrator notices something unusual.

As my lids were about to close, I received an impression of movement in the frozen gloom; and it seemed to me that a portion of the foremost shadow had detached itself and was crawling toward Octave, who lay nearer to the ruins than we others.

Even through my heavy lethargy, I was disturbed by a warning of something unnatural and perhaps ominous. I started to sit up; and even as I moved, the shadowy object, whatever it was, drew back and became merged once more in the greater shadow. Its vanishment startled me into full wakefulness; and yet I could not be sure that I had actually seen the thing. In that brief, final glimpse, it had seemed like a roughly circular piece of cloth or leather, dark and crumpled, and twelve or fourteen inches in diameter, that ran along the ground with the doubling movement of an inch-worm, causing it to fold and unfold in a startling manner as it went.

I did not go to sleep again for nearly an hour; and if it had not been for the extreme cold, I should doubtless have gotten up to investigate and make sure whether I had really beheld an object of such bizarre nature or had merely dreamt it. I lay staring at the deep ebon shadow in which it had disappeared…. And at last I nodded off into light slumber.

Okay, that’s seriously creepy. Up to now I’ve been reading mostly out of curiosity, and good-natured faith in pulp fiction. But as of now, I’m hooked.

The next morning, the archaeologists stumble on a sand-choked entrance and penetrate the ruins of the city, moving further and further underground. There they find peculiar pictographs on the walls, much like Egyptian hieroglyphs. Some of these drawings seem to carry a peculiar warning.

We found that the dark stone beneath our feet was marked off in multiform geometric patterns, traced with ochreous ore, amid which, as in Egyptian cartouches, hieroglyphics and highly formalized drawings were enclosed. We could make little from most of them; but the figures in many were doubtless designed to represent the Yorhis themselves… All of these Yorhis were represented as being nude; but in one of the cartouches, done in a far hastier style than the others, we perceived two figures whose high, conical craniums were wrapped in what seemed to be a sort of turban, which they were about to remove or adjust. The artist seemed to have laid a peculiar emphasis on the odd gesture with which the sinuous, four-jointed fingers were plucking at these head-dresses; and the whole posture was unexplainably contorted.

No. No, you dumb space archaeologists. These aliens have something nasty on their heads. Something they desperately want to get off. Seriously, why are space archaeologists always so out of it?

The dread is building as our clueless explorers penetrate deeper and deeper into the sub-layers of the dead city. And not just because the reader has figured out something that the characters haven’t.

The Last Incantation-smallSmith does a marvelous job of exploiting the claustrophobic and alien tomb for maximum impact as he draws his characters towards a chilling discovery.

Without warning, at the end of a long, urn-lined catacomb, we found ourselves confronted by a blank wall.

Here, we came upon one of the strangest and most mystifying of our discoveries — a mummified and incredibly desiccated figure, standing erect against the wall. It was more than seven feet in height, of a brown, bituminous color, and was wholly nude except for a sort of black cowl that covered the upper head and drooped down at the sides in wrinkled folds. From the three arms, and general contour, it was plainly one of the ancient Yorhis — perhaps the sole member of this race whose body had remained intact.

We all felt an inexpressible thrill at the sheer age of this shriveled thing, which, in the dry air of the vault, had endured through all the historic and geologic vicissitudes of the planet, to provide a visible link with lost cycles.

Then, as we peered closer with our torches, we saw why the mummy had maintained an upright position. At ankles, knees, waist, shoulders and neck it was shackled to the wall by heavy metal bands, so deeply eaten and embrowned with a sort of rust that we had failed to distinguish them at first sight in the shadow. The strange cowl on the head, when closelier studied, continued to baffle us. It was covered with a fine, mould-like pile, unclean and dusty as ancient cobwebs. Something about it, I know not what, was abhorrent and revolting.

Uh-huh. Step away from the abhorrent alien cowl, space archaeologists.

But they don’t.

Still lifting the torch, [Octave] put out his free hand and touched the body very lightly. Tentative as the touch had been, the lower part of the barrel-like torso, the legs, the hands and forearms all seemed to dissolve into powder…

Octave cried out in dismay… Then, above the spreading cloud, I saw an unbelievable thing. The black cowl on the mummy’s head began to curl and twitch upward at the corners, it writhed with a verminous motion, it fell from the withered cranium, seeming to fold and unfold convulsively in mid-air as it fell. Then it dropped on the bare head of Octave who, in his disconcertment at the crumbling of the mummy, had remained standing close to the wall. At that instant, in a start of profound terror, I remembered the thing that had inched itself from the shadows of Yoh-Vombis in the light of the twin moons, and had drawn back like a figment of slumber at my first waking movement.

Cleaving closely as a tightened cloth, the thing enfolded Octave’s hair and brow and eyes, and he shrieked wildly, with incoherent pleas for help, and tore with frantic fingers at the cowl, but failed to loosen it. Then his cries began to mount in a mad crescendo of agony, as if beneath some instrument of infernal torture; and he danced and capered blindly about the vault, eluding us with strange celerity as we all sprang forward in an effort to reach him and release him from his weird incumbrance.

ostWeird incumbrance. Only Clark Ashton Smith could create such an oddly clinical, almost detached description of an ancient alien evil that’s now eating a space archeologist’s head.

As you expect, things quickly go from bad to worse. As the pace of the narrative accelerates, the story changes subtly in tone, the prose less descriptive, more focused on the action. Octave vanishes screaming into the black catacombs; by the time they find him, it’s too late. He’s opening an ancient vault.

Before any of us could recover our faculties, Octave flung aside the metal bar and began to fumble for something in the wall. It must have been a hidden spring; though how he could have known its location or existence is beyond all legitimate conjecture. With a dull, hideous grating, the uncovered door swung inward, thick and ponderous as a mausoleum slab, leaving an aperture from which the nether midnight seemed to well like a flood of aeon-buried foulness…

I was the first of our party to throw off the paralyzing spell; and pulling out a clasp-knife — the only semblance of a weapon which I carried — I ran over to him. He moved back, but not quickly enough to evade me, when I stabbed with the four-inch blade at the black, turgescent mass that enveloped his whole upper head and hung down upon his eyes.

What the thing was, I should prefer not to imagine — if it were possible to imagine. It was formless as a great slug, with neither head nor tail nor apparent organs — an unclean, puffy, leathery thing, covered with that fine, mould-like fur of which I have spoken. The knife tore into it as if through rotten parchment, making a long gash, and the horror appeared to collapse like a broken bladder. Out of it there gushed a sickening torrent of human blood…

I bent over him and tore the flaccid, oozing horror from his head. It came with unexpected ease, as if I had removed a limp rag: but I wish to God that I had let it remain. Beneath, there was no longer a human cranium, for all had been eaten away, even to the eyebrows, and the half-devoured brain was laid bare as I lifted the cowl-like object, I dropped the unnamable thing from fingers that had grown suddenly nerveless, and it turned over as it fell, revealing on the nether side many rows of pinkish suckers, arranged in circles about a pallid disk that was covered with nerve-like filaments, suggesting a sort of plexus.

What’s inside the long-sealed vault of Yoh-Vombis? Horror. Crawling, flapping horror.

I beheld beneath my torch, far down beyond the door, as if in some nether pit, a seething, multitudinous, worm-like movement of crawling shadows. They seemed to boil up in the darkness; and then, over the broad threshold of the vault, there poured the verminous vanguard of a countless army: things that were kindred to the monstrous, diabolic leech I had torn from Octave’s eaten head. Some were thin and flat, like writhing, doubling disks of cloth or leather, and others were more or less poddy, and crawled with glutted slowness. What they had found to feed on in the sealed, eternal midnight I do not know; and I pray that I never shall know.

I sprang back and away from them, electrified with terror, sick with loathing, and the black army inched itself unendingly with nightmare swiftness from the unsealed abyss, like the nauseous vomit of horror-sated hells. As it poured toward us, burying Octave’s body from sight in a writhing wave, I saw a stir of life from the seemingly dead thing I had cast aside, and saw the loathly struggle which it made to right itself and join the others.

But neither I nor my companions could endure to look longer. We turned and ran between the mighty rows of urns, with the slithering mass of demon leeches close upon us…

A Rendezvous in AveroigneAt this point the story changes in tone again, becoming a full-throttled pulp horror piece, as the explorers quickly become separated in the darkness. Our narrator listens in terror to the agonized shrieks of his lost comrades, as they are consumed and converted one by one by the alien things.

But there are more surprises — and terrors — to come, as the narrator gradually discovers the true nature of the horrors that crawled from the Vaults of Yoh-Vombis. But to learn those, you’ll have to read the story yourself.

There were unexpected characteristics to Smith’s prose, too. Despite all that I’ve read about CAS, all the praise I’ve seen heaped on him over the decades, several aspects of his writing still surprised me.

For example, I somehow equated Smith’s rep for ornate prose with a slow-moving narrative. Nothing could be further from the truth. While Smith has a poet’s love for words, his stories move forward with the relentless drive of a Clydesdale.

True, there’s not much in the way of real character development — of the eight members of the expedition, we barely learn the names of half, and only three have any real dialog. And most of that is in routine service to the plot, establishing the setting by having our explorers expound helpfully to each other as they stumble closer to the dark horror at the story’s heart. For all his evident genius, Smith was still a pulp writer, constrained by the demands of the market.

But I was hooked within minutes of picking up “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis.” It may be one of the most perfect pulp tales I have ever read. I can’t describe it any better than Ryan Harvey did, in Part III of his Smith study, Poseidonis, Mars, and Xiccarph:

Although there is more to the story than its terror — the aura of ancientness is palpable, and the ironic conclusion excellent — Clark Ashton Smith wrote few tales of pure fear superior to this, one of the best examples of the classic “weird tale.” It remains a genuinely frightening read today. In his introduction to the collection Xiccarph, Lin Carter held up this particular story as the ideal example of Smith’s peculiar genre niche. I concur: if I had to select a single work to introduce a new reader to Smith’s style and themes, I would pick this one without hesitation.

Perhaps Ryan’s words stuck with me through the years, and helped guide me (along with Lin Carter, of course) to selecting “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis” as my introduction to CAS. If so, I’m certainly in his debt.

Xiccaarph was edited by Lin Carter and published by Ballantine in February, 1972. It is 248 pages, priced at $1.25 in paperback. It is long out of print; I bought my copy for about 70 cents, as part of a collection of 28 volumes.  “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis” has been included in several excellent collections since, including The Last Incantation (1982), A Rendezvous in Averoigne (2003), and Out of Space and Time (2006).

Smith’s fame continues to grow. Just this month, John R. Fultz and Fletcher Vredenburgh alerted us to a brand new anthology set in Smith’s mythical Hyperborea: Deepest, Darkest Eden edited by Cody Goodfellow.

Interested in other reviews of pulp fiction? Here are a few recommendations:

Understanding Howard’s “The Tower of the Elephant”
The Shapes of Midnight by Joseph Payne Brennan
When Aliens are Delicious: Murray Leinster’s “Proxima Centauri” and the Creepy Side of Pulp SF
Professor Jameson’s Space Adventures, or Zoromes Make the Happiest Cyborgs
The Best One-Sentence Reviews of Manly Wade Wellman
The Beast with Five Fingers by W.F. Harvey

And our recent coverage of Clark Ashton Smith includes:

New Treasures: The End of the Story: The Collected Fantasies, Vol. 1 by Clark Ashton Smith
Vintage Treasures: The Timescape Clark Ashton Smith
The Shade of Klarkash-Ton by James Maliszewski
One Shot, One Story: Clark Ashton Smith by Thomas Parker
New Treasures: The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies by Clark Ashton Smith
The Crawling Horrors of Mars: Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis”
Deepest, Darkest Eden edited by Cody Goodfellow by Fletcher Vredenburgh
Adventures in Stealth Publishing: The Return of the Sorcerer
A Few Words on Clark Ashton Smith by Matthew David Surridge
The Unqualified Unique: The Daily Mail Interviews Me for Clark Ashton Smith’s 50th Morbid Anniversary by Ryan Harvey
Of Secret Worlds Incredible: A Psychedelic Journey into Clark Ashton Smith’s Poetic Masterpiece by John R. Fultz
The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith Part I: The Averoigne Chronicles by Ryan Harvey
The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith Part II: The Book of Hyperborea by Ryan Harvey
The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith Part III: Tales of Zothique by Ryan Harvey
The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith Part IV: Poseidonis, Mars, and Xiccarph by Ryan Harvey

You can see all of our recent pulp reviews here.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

40 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Joe H.

It’s nice to know that space archaeologists were acting like idiots even before Prometheus.

And welcome to Smithdom! In the immortal words of Pinhead the Cenobite, we have such sights to show you …

John R. Fultz

Nice review, John!

But to really experience the genius of CAS, you must read his ZOTHIQUE stories. They are the jewels in his literary crown, so to speak.

Also, I have to confess that I’ve read next to nothing of Asimov’s work. His plain-as-dirt style just doesn’t work for me; I find it extremely boring. It’s the opposite of CAS’s lyrical, poetic style. I’ve noticed this same dichotomy among fantasy readers today: Some people prefer the Asimovian simplicity of language or the Smithian verbosity and lyricism.

This is just a reminder that artistic tastes are entirely, absolutely subjective, and that one man’s “trash” is another man’s “treasure.”

Personally, I like the lean-and-mean style when I’m reading crime fiction. But when I read fantasy, I want lyrical prose. It just seems to “work” more for the fantasy genre–but that’s just me. Others prefer completely modern and sparse language even in their epic fantasies. We’re all different.

But Asimov and Smith are perhaps great icons for the two styles of fantastic fiction writing.

I also have to point out that Smith was a Romantic in the classic sense–as exhibited by his refusal to abandon Romantic Poetry even though his colleagues told him he was a century out of date, so his choice of the word “veritas” (plus all the other obtuse words he used) was a deliberate and personal choice every time. He approached his short stories the way he approached writing his poems–carefully crafting word by word the specific story effect that he was looking for.

By the way, to be really creeped out and/or horrified, read “The Abominations of Yondo.”

James McGlothlin

Don’t fret John. I’ve only gotten into CAS in the past couple of years myself.

For all the raves you hear about CAS, especially in connection with Lovecraft, it’s amazing how difficult it is to find his stuff. Night Shade published a multi-volume collected works of CAS a few years ago. Unfortunately the earliest volumes are already out of print and go for HEFTY prices.

I wish another publisher would make these available. However, my guess is that ebook publishing makes this a highly risky endeavor. Oh well, that’s what used book stores are for!

Joe H.

Actually, those Night Shade collections are all still available on the Baen eBooks site — there’s a $25 bundle or the individual volumes are $6 each.

Joe H.

Or there have been recent “best of”-type collections from Bison Press and Penguin Classics.

James McGlothlin

@Joe H.

“Actually, those Night Shade collections are all still available on the Baen eBooks site”

Yeah, that’s my point. You can only get them ebook version now. No thanks. I’m still one of those tactile dinosaurs.

I wasn’t aware of the Bison editions. Those Penguin editions (actually I think it’s just one volume) aren’t slated to come out until 2014.

Gruud

Unless you’re specifically wanting to collect the physical books mentioned, most or all of Clarks’ archive is available online.

I’ll send you to a BG link though, so I can deny any responsibilty for your fate(s).

http://www.blackgate.com/2013/11/12/deepest-darkest-eden-edited-by-cody-goodfellow/#more-61593

You can find the ‘map’ down at the end, but you may not emerge for a while.

Joe H.

Some of the Amazon sellers also have Ballantine Adult Fantasy editions of Smith — Zothique, Hyperborea, Xiccarph and Poseidonis — available relatively cheaply. It looks like used copies of Poseidonis in particular are available in the $2-$3 range.

John R. Fultz

Hey, John,

I never read that ’99 tribute book–I had a negative experience with the editor of it, and sort of boycotted it. (Long story.)

“Abominations” can be found at The Eldritch Dark website: http://eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/2/the-abominations-of-yondo

Cheers!

Joe H.

Or the Pocket Timescape editions — City of the Singing Flame, Monster of the Prophecy and The Last Incantation. The three of those together would give you a solid collection of his work.

James McGlothlin

Let me rephrase my “it’s amazing how difficult it is to find his stuff” claim.

Compared with pulp writers like Lovecraft, Howard, and others, Clark Ashton Smith’s works are not readily available–unless of course you count “readily available” as downloadable as ebooks or accessible through used book sellers. I grant those are “available,” but I don’t take them to be readily so.

If I can’t get it in less than two business days (free shipping thank you very much), then it’s something that takes some work.

Joe H.

John — City of the Singing Flame was my first introduction to Smith as well, although in my case it was a library book. Then later I found a couple of BAF collections — Hyperborea and Poseidonis — in a local used book store. Eventually I ended up special-ordering Rendezvous in Averoigne — still love the J.K. Potter art on that one.

Fletcher Vredenburgh

The Timescape collections were my first CAS as well. I just saw them in an attic box the other day.

I’m glad I bought the Night Shade books as they came out.
The covers don’t compare to beautiful Ballantine ones, but I’m glad to have all his stories.

I’m in total agreement with John Fultz that the Zothique stories are CAS’s best series but Averoigne’s a close second. After playing the D&D Castle Amber module I hunted for them for years before finding the Timescape books

Fletcher Vredenburgh

The module is set in CAS’s French province Averoigne and elements are stripped straight from his stories. It even came with a great hex map of the district. Some of it was strange/cool enough to make me want to read the source stories.

John R. Fultz

John–I’ll answer that! The CASTLE AMBER module was based on CAS’s tales of Averoigne–sort of a medieval France haunted by vampires and ghosts. The cover of that module shows the undead colossus that is built out of dead bodies in one of the Averoigne stories.

My first CAS book was THE LAST INCANTATION–I read it as a teen and it set me on the path to looking for CAS books in every single bookstore I’d go into. However, I think my VERY first CAS tales were the ones I read in one of Lin Carter’s anthologies: “The Stairs in the Crypt” and “The Scroll of Morloc”–both of these were fragments that were finished by Carter–but they left me hungry for more of CAS’ macabre fantasy. THE LAST INCANTATION was the perfect answer to that hunger. My favorite CAS editions, though, are the TALES OF ZOTHIQUE and BOOK OF HYPERBOREA that Necronomicon Press released in the mid-90s. You can still find those, but the ain’t too cheap. They contain the entire Zothique and Hyperborean cycles.

bobby_5150

Let me rephrase my “it’s amazing how difficult it is to find his stuff” claim.

If I can’t get it in less than two business days (free shipping thank you very much), then it’s something that takes some work.

James McGlothlin,

I think you need to work on what you think is ‘easy’.

A thirty second search on amazon came up with three books, all new, all amazon prime. 1200 pages all for $40. A very good portion of his work. Add $69 to that order, and in two days you can also be reading “ALL” of his poetry.

Two days, $110 and 1500 pages of CAS goodness. That sounds easy to me.

James McGlothlin

@bobby_5150

$110 sounds easy? Ooof! Our respective definitions of “easy” are obviously relative!

bobby_5150

@James McGlothlin

I guess you missed the $40 for three books part.

Besides, you never said anything about price, just free shipping.

GreenGestalt

Take note Richard Corben did a decent comics adaptation of this stories in his large format “Fantagor” press series.

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/258/the-vaults-of-yoh-vombis-%28adaption-by-richard-corben%29

Above is a link to an Eldritch Dark post of a page or so. There’s simply no equal. I do buy, waiting for Amazon low prices on used copies, the physical prints, but having them all on my tablet is just fine. Only ones I had to order was his never published except years after his death “The Sword of Zagan” and “The Black Diamonds”.

Frankly, I love the current “Deepest Darkest Eden”

I wonder if we could form some kind of project to make more stories based on some of CAS’s worlds?

More Zothique tales… (and no tie up in a $100 whatever printing that is coveted by scalpers on Amazon, it goes to digital and print!)

More Xiccarph, Averviogne, Posedonis?

Like each book has a theme, namely the world CAS envisioned then fans who can write Weird Tales make new stories for it… Frankly I’m scribbling out and typing two characters who could have stepped out of Averviogne, “The Marquis” and “Dominik Wytchburner” though their storylines is later, 40 ish years before the French Revolution.

James McGlothlin

@bobby_5150

See last post.

bobby_5150

God, I loved those two CAS books from Necronomicon Press. When I got TALES OF ZOTHIQUE, I ordered another copy, which I laminated and kept in my knapsack. Did the same thing with the BOOK OF HYPERBOREA.

bobby_5150

That’s me. Smaug of Mount Clark Ashton Smith

[…] by Clark Ashton Smith prior to last week (when I read his brilliant pulp horror story “The Vault of Yoh-Vombis“), so I guess we all have our blind […]

[…] write stories about Mars the way they used to — like Clark Ashton Smith’s brilliant “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis,” or Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore’s fabulous tales  of decadent civilizations and […]

[…] wrote a brief appreciation of Clark Ashton Smith after reading “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis” in November — and if […]

[…] recently, and mostly enjoying it — especially the short work of Clark Ashton Smith (“The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis“), Murray Leinster (“Proxima Centauri“), and the fanzines that cover the pulps, […]

[…] Satampra Zeiros” is more exciting, “The Last Incantation” is more moving, “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis” is more nightmarishly gruesome, “The Seven Geases” is more kaleidoscopically […]


40
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x